Mladic In Srebrenica

Ratko Mladic is accused of the attempted genocide of the Muslim community of Srebrenica, and the murder of more than 7,000 men and boys following the capture of the United Nations “safe area” in July 1995. This chronology focuses on his movements and actions in Srebrenica in the crucial period between July 11 and July 15. Click on the links below for documents and witness testimony, collected from previous Srebrenica trials, using the key at the top to evaluate the reliability of the evidence. For a more complete analysis of the evidence, see the Mladic in The Hague blog, hosted by Foreign Policy magazine.

09:45A Bosnian Serb intelligence officer, Captain Momir Nikolic meets with Drina Corps security chief Vujadin Popovic in front of Hotel Fontana. Testifies later that he is informed that “able-bodied Bosnian Muislim men will all have to be killed.” (Popovic denies conversation.) Video shows Nikolic standing next to Popovic and other Serb officers just prior to third Hotel Fontana meeting.

09:50***Bosnian Serb ministry of defense requisitions buses to transport Muslims based on verbal order from Mladic, delivered overnight to Gen. Petar Skrbic.

10:00-11:30***Third Hotel Fontana Meting. Mladic meets with Dutchbat officers and Bosnian Muslim representatives. For first time, he informs participants that all men between ages of 17 and 70 will be separated and screened for war crimes. Says his troops will supervise evacuation of refugees from Potocari, and provide buses, but asks UN to provide four or five tanker trucks of fuel. Agrees that Dutchbat can escort the convoys.

12:50***In an intercepted phone conversation, Mladic is overheard talking with unidentified aide, who says buses have left 10 minutes earlier. Says “we will evacuate them all, those who want to go and those who don’t want to”. Buses arrive in Potocari shortly afterwards.

16:00** (est.)Mladic arrives at Dutch position at Potocari compound. Dutchbat Lieut. Eelco Koster asks Mladic several times to talk to Karremans. Mladic refuses, saying “I am in charge here and nobody tells me what to do.”

17:00 (est.)Mladic directs people to buses to leave Srebrenica, as his troops separate men from women and children. Mladic says goodbye to refugees, tells them they will be safe and everything will be fine. Men taken to nearby “White House.”

19:00*Hurem Suljic says that he saw Mladic in “unidentified house” near Potocari. Mladic promises to exchange Muslim men for 180 Serbs in Tuzla. Adds that he later saw Mladic standing near buses as they were loaded with male prisoners. Buses drive toward Bratunac.

22:00**
Mladic meets other generals at Bratunac brigade headquarters. Overheard procuring vehicles and fuel to transport Muslim population away from Potocari. Agrees to address troops attacking Zepa the following day.

13:15** (est.)Mladic at crossroads at Konjevic Polje. Addresses POWs again. Momir Nikolic asks him what will happen to the prisoners. Mladic draws hand across his chest, a gesture Nikolic understands as meaning they will be killed. Nikolic claims that order to execute prisoners being transferred from Bratunac to Zvornik came personally from Mladic.

13:30** (est.)Mladic addresses prisoners in Nova Kasaba soccer field, according to Smail Hodzic. Alights from olive-green APC. Promises that no harm will come to prisoners, says that they will be transferred to Bratunac.

18:00* (est.)Mladic visits Bratunac warehouse, according to Hurem Suljic. (Third claimed sighting). Promises to exchange 296 Pows, says they will go to Kalesija to be exchanged. Suljic says he sees Mladic for a fourth time as the men are being put on buses that will take them from Bratunac.

22:30***Mladic issues order on protecting military secrets. Orders closure of roads except for military vehicles and ban on journalists. Popovic trial chamber interprets order as “clear evidence of a premeditated, calculated effort to put measures in place to ensure the planned killings could be carried out covertly without any unwanted interference.”

AM?* Mladic in Laze, coordinating attack on Muslim-controlled enclave of Laze, 50 miles by helicopter from where he reported in afternoon.

17:00* (est.)Mladic visits Grbavci school gym to inspect prisoners transferred from Bratunac, according to two witnesses. Hurem Suljic says he announces that prisoners will be transferred to Kladusa and Bijelina. (Fifth Suljic sighting)

A Project by Michael Dobbs, Committee on Conscience Fellow

Bosnia peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke described Ratko Mladic as "one of those lethal combinations that history thrusts up occasionally—a charismatic murderer." What drove the Bosnian Serb military commander to order Europe's deadliest massacre since World War II? Could the international community have acted to prevent a modern-day genocide? Now that Mladic and other Balkan fugitives have finally been brought to justice, will it deter future atrocities? Michael Dobbs, a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum fellow, investigates. The views expressed are his own.
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